Hi all, I was just wondering about food and how much I should give our two, we feed them on a morning and before they go to bed , we do give them what I would say is a good amount for two 6 month olds but they seem to be getting hungry , any ideas please,

I only feed my hatchlings once a day normally on a morning, you don't really want to over feed them as they want to grow nice and slow, it's also a good idea to weigh them every month and keep a record of their weights this way you can see if their gaining too much.

Agree with Karen. They would walk a long way in nature to find food, this is what they evolved to do. Feeding on a plate so to speak will produce overweight torts with deformed shells. It's hard to think reptile and not mammal but the proof will be there at the end of the day for you

There is no given amount, as there are so many factors involved. If your tortoise is in a small area with very little stimulation, what would be ideal for him would not be enough for a tortoise in a large enclosure with lots to do, a bit like us really. Look at the lighter coloured growth ring around the scutes. It should be like a very fine pencil line, hardly visible. If it's like a crayon line it's too thick, if it's a wide band, your torts growth could be in trouble. If your torts seem too hungry while gaining weight either reduce heat or spread the food around to get them to search for it. As mentioned, weigh him regularly and depending on age and weight, it's easy to see if he is gaining too much or not ;)

Hi, thanks for the advice, the weight of the tortoises, toggy has gone from 62g to 67g and joggy from 80g to 86g, we weighed them when we bought them on 8th Dec and just weighed them again today 1st jan, is this too much weight gain? their lines look like a thin pencil line,, thanks John & Julie

thanks for the advice Sue, we will look to decrease the feeding, we have the heat lamp on constantly through the day as we put it on before we go to work and then switch it off later in the evening, would we be better off with this on a timer so it goes on and off through the day? we have a 100 watt heat lamp at the moment which is about 18inch above the base?

No, don't have the heat going on and off, this would cause confusion. Just raise the height of the lamp to reduce the temp or change to a 60 watt bulb for winter. All of my lamps are off by 5pm. Maybe you could use a timer to set the lamps to come on later if you wish to see them after work ;)